Pittsburgh and Paris mayors to Trump: 'We have our own climate deal'

Green
lights are projected onto the facade of the Hotel de Ville in
Paris, France, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his
decision that the United States will withdraw from the Paris
Climate Agreement at a news conference June 1,
2017.Reuters

In President Trump's speech on June 1 announcing that the US
will pull
out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, he
said, "I was elected to represent the citizens of
Pittsburgh, not Paris."

But now, the mayors of the two cities
say they are working together to form "their own climate
deal" and are "more united than ever."

In
a joint "New York Times" op-ed on June 7, Pittsburgh Mayor
Bill Peduto and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote that they
plan to adhere to the Paris Agreement.

"Though separated by an ocean and a language, we share a
desire to do what is best for our citizens and our planet. That
means putting aside parochial politics and embracing the global
challenge of fighting climate change. In doing so, we can create
a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous world for Parisians,
Pittsburghers and everyone else on the planet," they
wrote.

Peduto said he was joining a coalition that intends to uphold the
Paris Agreement called
Mayors for 100% Clean Energy. The coalition, an initiative of
the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign, represents an
increasing number of US mayors who have endorsed community-wide
goals of switching completely to clean energy.

Thirty cities, three states, more than 80 university presidents,
and more than 100 companies recently
launched another group with similar goals. Organized by
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire philanthropist and former New
York City mayor, that coalition expects to submit to
the UN a plan to uphold the greenhouse-gas limits set in the
Paris Agreement,
according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, the
United States Climate Alliance, made up of 11 states, Puerto
Rico, and Washington, DC, has also vowed to abide by the Paris
accord.